Surface is Coming: Ready to Roll Your Apps to the Windows Store?

Surface is Coming: Ready to Roll Your Apps to the Windows Store?

Author: Eric Everson, MBA, MSIT-SE, *JD Candidate (Follow @IntleDiscovery         )

Those of us with an Apple Developers License may have already heard the buzz about rolling our Apps into the Window’s Store in advance of the upcoming Windows Surface launch this fall, but is it too early?

In short reply, no; it’s not too early and in fact, the earlier the better!  App developers have a new avenue to cover beginning this fall with the debut of the Microsoft Surface.  Before it has been sufficient to choose Apple’s App store over Google’s Marketplace (or vice versa) but serious app developers cannot afford to miss out on the opportunity in Microsoft’s Windows Store.

What you may find delightful as a developer is that the Microsoft Dev Kit includes Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 and Blend for Visual Studio to help jumpstart your app development projects.  Now is a great time to get used to the differences in developing for Microsoft compared to the development platforms of other mobile devices.

Adding to the urgency to transition, Windows 8 is a marked departure from the current Windows environment.  To distinguish this new Operating System (OS), Microsoft is launching the Windows Surface as its proprietary tablet.  Equipped with a cover keyboard and full Office Suite, this mobile device takes dead aim at Apple’s iPad.  For business users especially, the Microsoft Surface Pro provides the portability of the Office Suite (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, etc) on a whole new level.

The debut of the Windows Surface could signal a significant divide in tablet market share as Microsoft loyal, flock to the ease and portability of their preferred OS.  Likewise the transition to Windows 8 creates a major shift in the practice of eDiscovery (more to come on this topic).  As the old saying goes, when Microsoft moves the whole world moves too.  The time is now to get ahead of the next wave of App development!  Roll’em if you got’em!

Tags: Microsoft Surface, Windows 8, iPhone, Tablet, Surface, W8OS, Visual Studio Express, , eDiscovery, App Developer, Windows App Store, Windows Store, Android, , Apple App Store, Windows 8 Apps, Blend for Visual Studio, Android Marketplace

  

        ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About the Author:  Eric Everson is a *3L law student at Florida A&M University – College of Law.  Prior to law school he earned an MBA and Masters in Software Engineering while serving ten years in executive leadership in the U.S. telecommunications industry.  The views and opinions presented in this blog are his own and are not to be construed as legal advice.  Eric Everson currently serves on the Board of Governors for The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Law Student Division and is the President of the Electronic Discovery Law Student Association at Florida A&M University – College of Law.  Follow @IntleDiscovery